Denver police intimidate witness?

Judge urged exam of department

By Kirk Mitchell

Denver Post

Posted:
06/11/2014 05:20:03 PM MDT

Two Denver police internal affairs officers drove to a prison in southern Colorado apparently with the singular mission of intimidating a witness from testifying in a civil rights lawsuit against the city, a federal judge and attorney contend.

Now U.S. District Judge John Kane is urging the U.S. Attorney's office to not only investigate this episode that "smacks of a sham," but to take a broad examination of the "practices and patterns" of the Denver police and sheriff's departments.

Kane said he may unseal previously restricted documents and investigatory video recordings in the civil rights case filed by Jamal Hunter, who claims Denver detectives tried to intimidate Amos Page, a key witness in his federal civil rights case against the city. The judge has given Denver attorneys until 5 p.m. Wednesday to give reasons why he shouldn't release the material.

WATCH: Video released in the Jamal Hunter Denver jail case

Hunter has accused the city and Denver jail Deputy Gaynel Rumer of facilitating and encouraging a brutal 2011 attack against him in his Denver jail cell. Rumer did not come to Hunter's aid while the inmate screamed and fellow inmates attacked him.

In n a court hearing on Friday, Kane ordered Denver police to produce all documents in its investigation of Page.

At the same hearing, Hunter's attorney Qusair Mohamedbhai gave a preview of what Sgts. Brian Cotter and Brad Lenderink of Denver's internal affairs office said to Page in an interview at Crowley County Correctional Facility on March 14.

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"'If you say this or more than this on the federal stand, you're subjecting yourself to a felony criminal charge for what happened to Jamal (Hunter),'" Mohamedbhai told Kane. "This is unambiguous, your honor.

The sergeant was referring to testimony Page had already given in a deposition and a signed statement. The officers were suggesting that Hunter or his attorney had bribed him, but Page defended the integrity of the investigation, Mohamedbhai said.

"'I was there when they typed it. I sat there and watched them type it. ... What is in there is true and accurate,'" the attorney quoted Page as telling the two internal affairs officers.

Implying that Page may have been coerced to speak to Hunter's attorney, the sergeants ask Page what his motive in speaking out is.

"'I have a conscience. Yeah, I'm a gangster. Don't get me wrong. You know what I'm saying. I'm a gangster, but at the same time ... Jamal was an innocent bystander,'" Mohamedbhai quoted Page as responding. "'I feel bad for what happened to Jamal now, that I didn't give a ----. I didn't. I feel bad. It was wrong. ... If I could go back and change it now, I would.'"

Page then told the internal affairs sergeants that he is also speaking because what Rumer did was wrong as well.

"It's his job to make sure everyone in that pod is safe. That's what his job description is. That's what his duties are. So, in fact, he turned a blind eye or made himself unavailable. That's messed up."

Mohamedbhai then told the judge that Page had been one of Hunter's best witnesses.

"And now he is forever chilled and tainted," he said. "I don't know what can be done. ... Anything he says from here on is inherently ... untrustworthy because of this threat."

Kane later said that if the case goes to trial, the jury will be instructed about "intimidation by agents of the defendant."

Rumer, who denies the allegations, is still working at the jail after serving a 40-day suspension. His attorney said Rumer is actually the target of the Denver police investigation.